E on the Z

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Tuesday, August 21

by Tricia .,posted Aug 21 2012 7:56AM

"Us Weekly" claims it's happening: Nicki Minaj is an is an "American Idol" judge. They say it's essentially a done deal, although she does have some paperwork to sign before it becomes official. There was talk from other sources over the weekend that "Idol" had real interest in Nicki and that hiring her might reignite the cola wars, because Nicki is a Pepsi girl, and Coca-Cola is a major "Idol" sponsor. I've also heard Mariah Carey is upset because she negotiated to be the only female on the judging panel. What a mess, maybe they should move on and pick someone else?

I guess Chris Brown did watch Oprah's interview with Rihanna on Sunday night. After he saw some clips last week, Chris Tweeted some pictures of himself looking sad and introspective. Sources say that after Chris watched the full interview Sunday night, he told friends, "You know I love her and we're going to get back together one day." Then he sent Rihanna a text thanking her for being respectful. And a different source says that Chris'current girlfriend, Karrueche Tran, cried after watching the interview, "If Karreuche ever thought she stood a chance being Chris' main girl, she can forget that now. "Chris always told her Rihanna was his true love and now Rihanna told the whole world that too."

Kelly Ripa's new permanent co-host has been chosen, but won't be announced until the new season premieres next month. She will host the show alone when it returns on Monday, September 3rd and her new co-host will make his debut the next day, on the 4th. They will walk out onto the set together. Kelly has had 59 different guest co-hosts since Regis Philbin left last November. So that it's on the record, I think it will be Seth Meyers, but Nick feels like it's gonna be Nick Lachey and Shag thinks she's going to do the show with her husband, Mark Consuelos.